Chin-ups and dips are exercises that develop upper body strength. However, these exercises are relatively difficult and require a certain amount of strength to do at all. The reason for this is that the person must support his/her entire body weight at all times while doing such exercises. People with very little upper body strength may not be able to do any chin-ups or dips, and even those people that do have sufficient upper body strength may only be able to do a few repetitions.
Various devices have been available heretofore for assisting people while doing such exercises; however, the assist devices of the prior art have tended to be overly complicated and/or difficult to use. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,846,458 to Potts shows an upper body exercise apparatus wherein the athlete or exerciser stands on a moveable platform that is connected to a pneumatic cylinder which is controlled so that the upward force assisting the exerciser is maintained constant during oscillation of the platform. U.S. Pat. No. 4,111,414 to Roberts shows a pullup assisting device incorporating a weight stack and harnass for cancelling at least a portion of the weight of the exerciser. U.S. Pat No. 3,592,465 to Fulkerson illustrates another device having a movable platform connected to a spring system for assisting the person performing chinning exercises.
A need has thus arisen for an improved assisted dip/chin device of straightforward construction which allows for pre-adjusted, selective assistance as desired while doing either chin-ups or dips.